Army of Club Penguin

MAMMOTH, Shamrock Bulletin Headquarters – Happy Birthday, Army of Club Penguin! Today is a special day, ACP is celebrating its 16th Birthday, and we’re going to have a look and talk to some former leaders of the army.

How would ACP live for 16 years if not for its exceptional leaders that put so much time and effort into keeping the army alive? During good and hard times, they were always there when the army needed them the most. They truly deserve the rank of legend. We reached out to multiple leaders of the army, some you don’t even expect, that led in the era of the original Club Penguin. Today we are talking to:

Cubster and Max, ACP’s 46th Commander in Chief; Kailey310 and CSY, ACP’s 45th Commander in Chief; Koloway, ACP’s 44th Commander in Chief; Purplesime4, ACP’s 32nd Commander in Chief; Mchappy, ACP’s 19th, 21st, and 27th Commander in Chief; Kingfunks4, ACP’s 22nd and 24th Commander in Chief; Bobcatboy10, ACP’s 18th Commander in Chief.

During what period were you leader in ACP?

Cubster: Mid 2021.

Max: So I led ACP in June and July 2021, I was a second-in-command for the 18 months prior to that.

Kailey310: January-Febuary of 2020. Not very long but hey, at least I was somewhat notable!

Koloway: I was leader from early November 2019 to late January 2020.

CSY: January 2020 to August 2021.

Purpleslime4: I led april 2014 to march 2015, that’s when I led. I was partnered up with other leaders such as mrtchy, flipmoo, fluffyboy3 – a kind of duo leadership – throughout my time as leader.

Mchappy: December 2010 to March 2011, July 2012, finally April 2013 to June 2013.

Kingfunks4: So I led ACP twice, once in the summer of 2012 follow the leadership of Flen (Flipper and Ken) and then briefly Mchappy and again in the summer of 2013 following from Ekpenguin, leading with Antant and then Swimmer.

Bobcatboy10: I became leader in Sept 2010 right after Matre10. ACP was coming off an amazing summer with great numbers each event. It was my duty to keep those numbers up with one of the toughest challenges to cp armies: back to school time. Overall, ACP remained the No. 1 army.

What is your proudest/biggest accomplishment as leader?

Cubster: I think my proudest moment is lifting the AUSIA division to be a threat in the community. ACP was well known for its AUSIA, and bringing that force back into life was a big enjoyment.

Max: Superficially, winning the Project: Conquest tournament and hosting the first ever community-wide Pride Parade with 100+ in attendance. But truly, helping to create a fun and exciting environment within the army alongside the rest of the leadership and staff team – the camaraderie and environment we all helped create was really beautiful and very special to me.

Kailey310: Back when I first became leader I made a google doc to keep track of all my accomplishments. The list is pretty short since I wasn’t leader for very long, but my proudest accomplishment continued well after I stopped being leader. The Activity Chart! One of the things I am probably most known for (other than all the RFCP drama and disasterous leadership at ACP) is the Activity Chart. It was a chart that ACP used for a few years to keep track of who attended events and how often. We used the chart for promotions, to keep track of clovers, to know when to schedule events, etc. Many promotions were decided through this chart. Most importantly, many of our most dedicated officers were noticed because we knew exactly how many events people were attending. If a recruit didn’t stand out much, that was okay, cause we still knew who was attending! (Fun fact: The person who attended the most events while I was at ACP was Fatchicken88 with 312 events in total!)

Koloway: My proudest moment & biggest accomplishment is really helping revive ACP. I know it may sound cheesy, but that really is my biggest moment. Being able to bring ACP back alongside 3 others was an amazing experience, and alongside Mchappy, I feel like we were able to recreate and breathe new life into something that has lasted for now 16 years.

CSY: Honestly took me a while to figure out how to answer this question. There’s so many “greats” – being an AUSIA-based leader and breaking the ACP AUSIA record, beating the “top” armies in tournaments and wars, maxing CPPS era records of 100+. But truthfully, all the numbers, the battles, have become a blur. Something that I’ve personally never been able to do in OG, and came back to accomplish, was perseverance. AUSIA in OG was notoriously small and relied heavily on US/UK. To not drag down TT scores and ‘prove’ my small division worthwhile, I would always look at CPA as a sprint – to get one AUSIA max, as high as possible. Returning to ACP in 2019, I wanted to make sure I built a solid foundation – a reliable AUSIA that could slowly grow and prosper. My proudest accomplishment is being the longest ACP leader, in the entirety of ACP history. Going from burnout in 2 months (my last ACP tenure in 2016 lol) to 581 days – a leadership where we held Top 3 for most of my tenure, where I can truly say ACP regained her former glory as a world power. The perseverance, the tenacity it takes to do this at the top tier for so long is my proudest accomplishment as the longest-serving ACP leader.

Purpleslime4: My proudest accomplishment as leader was that i kept ACP strong and motivated, ensuring my troops had a lot of fun and were in safe hands! We’d always do lots of fun games and I’d hold U-lead sessions all the time, I invented the ‘ACP awards’ and my ACP recap series (credit to Stew20 for doing the first ever OG ACP recap post), I started a ‘medals’ or was it called clovers i think? awards system to figure out which troops were the most loyal…I’m proud of a lot of things :)) and also my graphics which i still see on the ACP site and on recent posts!!! I find it so funny how I made them on microsoft word 2010 ! I’m very proud with what I did with the army and even more proud of the troops I was in the community with- They should feel just as accomplished and just as proud of themselves. I’m very thankful to have spent my time with them and I hope they’re doing good now that we’ve all departed.. us growing up and all..

Mchappy: My proudest accomplishment as a Commander in Chief was probably just cementing myself in the history books of the Army of Club Penguin. I looked up to a lot of former leaders and felt like I was able to contribute to important transitional periods for the army to succeed.

Kingfunks4: It was a tough period for the army in all honesty as they were coming off the back of a considerable drop, but I think my greatest accomplishment was the size of our UK division and the success that this had – it was definitely one of the biggest in the community.

Bobcatboy10: I believe I spoke too early, but my proudest accomplishment was keeping ACP as the No. 1 army for all 4 months of leadership.

What is the biggest challenge you overcame?

Cubster: Biggest challenge was getting the motivation to recruit managed to recruit 2000+ people into the ACP server during my time in the army.

CSY: The biggest challenge I’ve faced since leading is possibly when I first got the job. Me and Kailey310 were promoted rather unexpectedly, and we both had really different ideas of how to lead. To TLDR things, starting my leadership off with a near coup, and distrust from a group of mods I had never talked to was probably the hardest, yet most important lesson I’ve learnt from my time here – respect and trust that comes with leadership is earned, not a right. You expect conflict and wars from the bigger community, but inner conflict, from your own people, is possibly the greatest challenge.

Koloway: The biggest challenge I overcame was really going from essentially nothing– into something. We went from an alright army with decent sizes into the undisputed #1 army in the community.

Purpleslime4: The biggest challenge 10000% was dealing with waterkid100 (now riley) who I remember very vividly through my whole time in Club Penguin Armies. He led the Light Troops at my time of leadership, who were absolutely vile and toxic to ACP, declaring war on us every few months or so. I remember never ever being alarmed about it and just going along with it, like ‘ah here we go again’ they were our biggest threat and they’d multilog and cheat whenever they could. Luckily, we sent out our very strong AUSIA force (that they never had!) to invade and reclaim servers, and ended all of those wars with many treaties. The biggest challenge was also motivation to recruit. CPA started waning around 2014. I can assure you the Golden Age in terms of size and vibes was 2010-2012- although- that might be a biased view!! By 2014 club penguin started banning certain things to say online so it made recruiting very difficult. My main goal to counteract this challenge was to acknowledge every troop and make them feel special to ensure that they stay- and also since I cared for them a lot. I wanted them to feel welcome to the army, compared to how it was when I was new. The internet was a scary hellhole in 2010… it’s a lot nicer nowadays it seems.

Mchappy: The biggest challenge I overcame was my inconsistency, I guess? It’s important to talk openly about mental health, and as a Commander in Chief, I experienced burn out often. However, no matter what anyone had to say about me, I overcame the side comments by always putting ACP first and giving back in any way I could. 

Kingfunks4: The biggest challenge along the same theme was the USA division as without a USA leader I found it hard to get that going successfully – at the time for ACP they had previously had almost exclusively USA leaders so it was quite a change for us.

Bobcatboy10: We even defeated IW in a war for first place in the community which was definitely a big challenge.

How was leading the army in the days of OG Club Penguin?

Purpleslime4: I cannot say! I can’t compare OG CP armies to anything else, I never engaged with post-2017 Club Penguin Armies. But i had a very fun time. More so on the xat chat group.. it wasnt just fighting wars and training, it was a home, a community, it gave me routine, it gave me friends, goals to work towards, it pushed me to greater limits, it helped me realise abilities I didn’t think I had. And I am honestly thankful. I really hope CPA still has those qualities nowadays! The community had very rough edges in my day, hackers and Doxers, scammers all about.. people bullying for fun, creeps, blatant sexism and homophobia, people lying about cancer etc, drama, but beneath all of that, there were some really lovely people that I got along with and we talked about EVERYTHING and anything, played games, cheekily I e-dated here and there. Despite all that, ACP arguably was the most special and safest army at that time- the notable people that came and went through ACP in my time (2010-2015) that I befriended were so amazing. Looking back, leading and fighting feels secondary. The community was truly the incredible part.

Mchappy: Leading in the OG days is a one-of-a-kind experience. Nothing will ever beat that. We were younger, more adventurous, kinder, and ultimately more invested in the community at large and what we were doing. It’s crazy to think as kids we created such a strong foundation for all of this.

Kingfunks4: It was different in some aspects compared to leading today, I’ve had experience of leading armies in both eras. I think original CP armies was a little bit less tactical on the battle field, using XAT to lead was a lot slower and harder to get tactics done quickly – so the pace of battles therefore was impacted. The wars were also not judged, so leaders decided the winners, and the wars often had no winners. In a sense though, I think the community back then (whilst more unstructured which caused a few issues) was a much more active and put together community as everyone from different armies was always engaging in conversations. ACP chat room was always very lively and had people from outside the army popping in to talk – although today I think it’s great how well some people know each other in different armies and there’s a lot more community games and things like that which is great too! So both have their own up sides.

Bobcatboy10: Leading an army in OG Club Penguin was an amazing time in my life! I truly enjoyed the experience, my fellow soldiers that were also the greatest friends, and Club Penguin being so popular at the time!

What is your message for those that want to become leader one day?

Cubster: It’s just a game no need to take things serious, show the army you are willing to work hard and fight for it.

Max: Don’t! It’s actually a lot more fun not being the leader and just grafting in the ranks like everyone else… but for those that are particularly ambitious, be proactive and innovative within the army to set you apart from others.

Kailey310: Becoming leader isn’t easy. Most of the time the need for a new leader comes from hardship. Low numbers, decreased morale, infighting, drama, etc. The first few months of being leader is what’s going to make or break you. If you want my advice, shoot lower. If you reach leader awesome! But don’t let the prospect distract you from having fun! That’s what Club Penguin is meant to be. Fun. My best times in ACP were spent in other ranks, doing non-leader things. Often times I let my hurt from being couped keep me from having fun and making friends. Don’t let that be you. At the end of the day, it’s just a rank. Everyone in ACP is equal. It’s what you make of your time here that sets you apart. So remember to have fun, wear your letterman with pride, and live in the moment! Afterall, you’re apart of the best army in all of Club Penguin!

Koloway: If you want to become a leader, that starts today. The actions you make & the messages you send decide who and what you will become. Even without that title, you can lead your fellow troops in ways that make this army better. Seek out greatness & achievement will seek you out in return.

CSY: My advice is – don’t. Not don’t become leader, but don’t make it your only goal to aim for. ACP is and should be a hobby. There are so many more opportunities in real life that you should prioritize and explore. Don’t get me wrong – armies are a microcosm for reality and the skills you develop will take you far – but the same can be said for many other hobbies. Don’t be overinvested, and prioritize your own life, as well as the people you meet along the way.

Purpleslime4: Work hard, make friends, trust me the journey to the top is going to be great! Treat every new troop like how you wanted to be treated when you were new.

Mchappy: My message for those that want to become the Commander in Chief one day is: you can do it! Literally anyone has the potential to become the leader of this army. Do you think as a low member rank that anyone would’ve expected me to make my way to where I am now? Absolutely not! It’s really just about being in the moment and contributing. Always be open to helping others out. I stand firmly by the fact that, even if the Army of Club Penguin is not dominating the rest of the competition, the Commander in Chief of the army can have a profound effect on the community. Because the community has taken inspiration from us time and time again. You have the ability to be an innovator, so be sure to be kind to others and lead with an open heart and mind.

Kingfunks4: Anybody has the capability to be leader if you put your mind to it. You need to be able to slowly gain that experience – I worked my way up from private at the very bottom in the ACP and gained experience for two years before getting to the leadership position. You need to look out for ideas being implemented in your own army and in other armies and pick out what you like. You need to make sure you are active, but also show your leader that you are willing to help with different things and that you are keen to progress up. But the main thing is enjoy yourself first of all, it’s all a bit of fun and don’t stress yourself out about it.

Bobcatboy10: Never give up! Never lose sight of the goal you set! I joined ACP two years before I became leader. I was in other armies even before that. I knew my ultimate goal was to lead this army and I was determined to see it through without compromise or corruption. And please, always enjoy your journey into ranking up and being beside your fellow soldiers. It goes by so fast so it is important to take in every moment of it!

How important do you think the leaders’ role is? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below! And don’t forget to react in #❗legends-cup👑 if you can attend!

Alemax

ACP Major General & Shamrock Reporter

Filed under: ACP, Army of CP, Private Chats, Shamrock Bulletin | Tagged: ACP, Army of Club Penguin, Army of CP, bobcatboy10, Club Penguin, CSY, Cubster, Kailey310, kingfunks4, koloway, Max, Mchappy, Purpleslime4, Shamrock Bulletin |